


when he's not here

by navaan



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Early in Canon, Fandom Stocking 2015, Ficlet, Identity Porn, M/M, missing each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 01:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5648572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iron Man is gone and Steve misses him</p>
            </blockquote>





	when he's not here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magicasen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicasen/gifts).



Thor pats him on the back and Jan grins at him. They are standing in the middle of the street and people around them are cheering, relieved that the worst of it is over. The Avengers saved the day once more. It's a good feeling, but Steve is distracted. Not by the firemen and rescue workers who are getting to work around them, where AIM has left a crater in the middle of the road. 

There's still work to be done, but he just wants to get back to the mansion.

His uniform is torn in places, and he probably looks like he's taken a bad hit. Jan is laughing at him, playfully suggesting that she can provide him with a new outfit without charge. “It's time for a change, Cap. Keep the colors, change the cut.”

Despite his distraction he smiles at the suggestion, all the while pulling his Avengers card from his belt pocket. There is no message waiting for him.

Jan pats him on the arm and rolls her eyes a bit. “It's hopeless with you two.”

“My head was in the game,” he says defensively, “until now.”

“Oh.” Jan shrugs and holds her arms wide and gestures around at the defeated men and women in terrible yellow outfits and the dark dressed mercenary they brought along for the ride. “Nobody doubts it. You were as magnificent as ever.”

He smiles ruefully. “Thank you.”

She pats him again, this time with a softer smile. “He's been gone for a week. But he'll be back.”

Steve doesn't pretend he doesn't know what she's talking about. He just sighs.

When they finally get back to the mansion, Jarvis receives them with a hero's feast and the halls are filled with chatter for a while. It's easier to cope with the big house when he's not alone in it.

But he's the only Avenger living here and the others will drift out sooner or later to go back to their own lives. The only other person living here has been away on business, taking with him his body guard. Tony Stark had promised to be back right after the conferences, but seven days and he's still not back. And for that reason Iron Man is still not back either. Steve has seen him on TV once in the meantime, which meant he'd been keeping busy or that danger just happened wherever he and his employer went. 

The library is empty and Steve avoids it as long as there's company to be had in the kitchen and living room.

By the time that Thor is leaving to go wherever Asgardian gods go to rest, the last to leave, it's late. Steve thinks he should just go to bed and not even sit and brood in the library; not until some is there to interrupt his brooding.

Instead of going to his room he _does_ end up in front of the library, because even if he doesn't admit it, sleep doesn't come easy these days and he'll brood anyway.

When he slips in he freezes in surprise. 

Tony Stark is sitting slumped over in the arm chair that Iron Man usually occupies. “Cap,” he says drowsily, his eyes bloodshot and red.

“Tony,” he greets warmly. It's good to see him back, sitting there in his crumpled suit and looking tired, like he had just come back from his business trip and come straight here. “You should probably go to bed.”

The man blinks at him with tired blue eye and a still drowsy smile. “Iron Man said you tried to contact him and...”

“It wasn't that important,” he lies, because it wasn't important business, but contacting his friend had been on his mind every single day for very different reasons.

“He'll be around tomorrow,” Tony says and he slumps further into the chair. "I promise."

Steve sits down on the sofa on the opposite side of him. For the first time in a week he feels the smile on his own face and it is real. “Thank you, Tony,” he says and again wants to suggest the man go to bed now.

But he likes the company.

And he hates being completely alone.

Reading while Iron man quietly sits in the chair has become a ritual he enjoys.

Reading with the soft breaths of Tony Stark the only sound in the room, is not exactly the same. But it's equally comforting.

It's like Iron Man is home.

He'll wake the man before he gets a crook in his neck.

He will.

Surely.


End file.
